It's not exactly light reading at 1,566 pages, but the full appeals package filed in Superior Court last month by Sudbury businessman Tom Fortin is now available to read online.
You can read the document here.
Fortin filed a separate court case Oct. 22 to try and stop the Kingsway Entertainment District, an appeal that is going through the legal process at the same time as the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal case to try and stop the same project.
It should be noted civil appeals contain allegations that have not been proven in court. Greater Sudbury officially received its copy of the appeal this week, so it has not yet filed its statement of defence. No date has been released for when the case will be heard in court.
While he is joined by the Downtown Sudbury BIA and others in the LPAT appeal, Fortin is the only name on the Superior Court application. The BIA had been involved, but has since withdrawn.
The appeal includes affidavits in which the BIA says it withdrew from the process because of intimidation by city councillors. The documents say the group was told council would pass a bylaw to disband the organization if it took part in the Superior Court appeal.
Fortin, through his lawyer, Gordon Petch, is arguing the city was biased when it approved the Kingsway site in April 2018. Those arguments were removed from the LPAT appeal earlier this year, when the tribunal said it had no jurisdiction to rule on issues of bias, only whether planning laws were followed.
The next step in the LPAT process is scheduled for May 2020.
Fortin's arguments include a reference to a letter Mayor Brian Bigger sent to Premier Doug Ford in July 2018, asking the premier to intervene to speed up the LPAT process. As we reported last month, multiple sources have told Sudbury.com one of the reasons why the LPAT hearing was delayed until May 2020 – more than two years after city council approved the project – was a partial reaction to the letter. The province was eager to ensure it couldn't be accused of improperly accelerating the process.
The appeal includes a reference to Bigger's letter and says Fortin's lawyers have been unable to get information from the city detailing any further communication from the province in connection with the letter.
Fortin has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on the fight, and has received donations from supporters. The BIA also received approval from city council in May 2018 to spend $20,000 of their $534,000 budget to take part in the KED appeal. The BIA raises its budget from its 400 members, but it is collected by the city and councillors must approve the group's spending plans.
Last month, city councillors were told that with two separate legal battles now in place, outside counsel will have to be hired and legal costs will likely exceed $500,000 by the time the process is complete.
Both the LPAT and Superior Court decisions can be appealed, making it difficult to predict when the legal battle will end.
